Thanksgiving
As you probably guessed, I've been away for Thanksgiving. It was good. A few random notes:
1.) I saw the extended DVD version of The Two Towers, and it was good. I also watched a bit of the appendices. There were defensible story-telling reasons for the Osgiliath diversion, and the Ents were better with the cut scenes. In fact, if you've never read the books, I recommend the extended version because there are a few expository scenes that will really help you out.
2.) As I was pulling out of Fazoli's for lunch, I turned on my radio and they were playing "Stairway to Heaven." That was rare.
3.) Life's unexpected developments: I stopped by to visit my old French horn teacher's widow, and learned that a girl who in high school had been our official far-left somewhat anti-religious could-have-used-a-Nader girl is now in a convent taking up the religious life as a convert to Catholicism.
4.) There are a couple of very uninspiring James Bond movies. I saw The World is Not Enough, which was fine, but Never Say Never Again had me flipping around a lot despite my desire that night to simply watch a movie without worrying about it. I also watched A Christmas Story all the way through, which was mostly an experience in seeing how different scenes I already knew related to each other.
5.) If you ever develop a bit of car trouble on I-39 in northern Illinois, I recommend a place called Oscar's by the city hall in Oglesby.
UPDATE: Crescat Sententia's Will Baude questions my taste in Bond movies. I admit I'm not a connoisseur of Bond films, as I didn't see my first until two or three years ago and most of my viewing since has been stuff I've randomly caught on TNN/Spike TV. However, Never Say Never Again reminded me a lot of Moonraker, which I also disliked, in its reliance on cheap slapstick humor, plus the entire first hour with the new bureaucratic MI6 sort of put me too sleep. The part with the captured American pilot also kept giving me flashbacks to The Manchurian Candidate, and looked weak in comparison.
1.) I saw the extended DVD version of The Two Towers, and it was good. I also watched a bit of the appendices. There were defensible story-telling reasons for the Osgiliath diversion, and the Ents were better with the cut scenes. In fact, if you've never read the books, I recommend the extended version because there are a few expository scenes that will really help you out.
2.) As I was pulling out of Fazoli's for lunch, I turned on my radio and they were playing "Stairway to Heaven." That was rare.
3.) Life's unexpected developments: I stopped by to visit my old French horn teacher's widow, and learned that a girl who in high school had been our official far-left somewhat anti-religious could-have-used-a-Nader girl is now in a convent taking up the religious life as a convert to Catholicism.
4.) There are a couple of very uninspiring James Bond movies. I saw The World is Not Enough, which was fine, but Never Say Never Again had me flipping around a lot despite my desire that night to simply watch a movie without worrying about it. I also watched A Christmas Story all the way through, which was mostly an experience in seeing how different scenes I already knew related to each other.
5.) If you ever develop a bit of car trouble on I-39 in northern Illinois, I recommend a place called Oscar's by the city hall in Oglesby.
UPDATE: Crescat Sententia's Will Baude questions my taste in Bond movies. I admit I'm not a connoisseur of Bond films, as I didn't see my first until two or three years ago and most of my viewing since has been stuff I've randomly caught on TNN/Spike TV. However, Never Say Never Again reminded me a lot of Moonraker, which I also disliked, in its reliance on cheap slapstick humor, plus the entire first hour with the new bureaucratic MI6 sort of put me too sleep. The part with the captured American pilot also kept giving me flashbacks to The Manchurian Candidate, and looked weak in comparison.
posted by Brian Ulrich at
7:06 PM
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